Neill Blomkamp Reveals A New 'Alien' Pulse Rifle To Get Us Back On His Good Side

There are a handful of science fiction movies that arrived at just the right time and place to dig their hooks into an entire generation and dictate the look of countless future movies. Soon, all dystopias looked like Blade Runner. All spaceships started to look battered and personal, like in Star Wars. The influence of James Cameron's Aliens may not ring quite as loud, but you can feel its sticky, razor-sharp tendrils in countless movies and even more video games. Cameron's Colonial Marines have become the template for the science fiction military hero.

Which brings us to the point we're trying to make here – everyone remembers the pulse rifle. The weapon of choice for most of the brave, doomed soldiers who lost their lives on LV-426. So when director Neill Blomkamp shows off a new version of this famous movie weapon as part of that new Alien movie he's supposedly making, we have to sit up and take notice.

Hit the jump for the first look at the new Alien pulse rifle.

Blomkamp shared the picture on Instagram and as you can see for yourself, it's fairly close to what we saw in the original film. There are changes for sure, like the scope on the top and a few cosmetic differences, but it's close enough. It's enough to send a wave of warm, gooey, caramel-flavored nostalgia oozing into your brain. Blomkamp is betting on you looking at this thing and remembering how you wore out that copy of Aliens on VHS back in day. Or just spun the DVD a bunch. Or accessed that digital file last year. You know how old you are. Pick one.

Of course, we still don't have any idea what Blomkamp's new movie actually is. We've been calling it Alien 5, but it appears to be a direct sequel to Aliens that ignores the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. Sure, Blomkamp claims that he doesn't intend to wipe half of the franchise out of existence to make his movie, but how does he explain a very-much-alive Hicks in that concept art he posted? Those latter two movies may not live up to the standards of the first two entries in this franchise, but just flat-out ignoring them rubs us the wrong way. Both are too weird and singular to completely write-off. Fans are rightfully cautious about this whole thing. It looks cool, but what is it, exactly?

And then there's the fact that Ridley Scott has been throwing his weight around, using Alien: Paradise Lost (formerly Prometheus 2) to force Blomkamp to tweak his concept before forcing a full-on delay. Things are heating up at Camp Alien, it seems.

In any case, Blomkamp kinda needs this. District 9 was a revelation, but Elysium and Chappie were, uh, let's just be polite and say that they weren't District 9. The guy's got talent. He shoots a nice looking movie and has an eye for action. Maybe having some fun in someone else's sandbox is what he needs. With access to toys created for one of the best genre movies of the '80s, he may find relocate the spark that was missing from his last two movies. In any case, we know one thing: he sure knows how to rebuild those toys.